Huawei Technologies Co. confirmed it
sold telecom equipment and a “mobile news delivery platform”
to MTN Irancell Telecommunications Services Co., Iran’s second-
largest mobile provider, while denying the gear is used for
censorship.

Huawei, China’s largest maker of phone network equipment,
doesn’t provide “any services relating to monitoring or
filtering technologies and equipment anywhere in the world,”
the Shenzhen, China-based company said in a e-mailed statement
today.

The company said it issued the statement on Iran in
response to “inaccurate and misleading claims” about its
“commercial activities” in Iran, without identifying the
source of those claims. Both Bloomberg News and the Wall Street
Journal published reports last month saying Iranian authorities
use technology purchased from foreign companies to monitor
dissidents.

“Huawei provides a mobile news delivery platform to MTN
Irancell, but we have no involvement in any aspect of the
content of the information that is provided on that platform,”
the Huawei statement said. “Most importantly, we have
absolutely no technology that can be used for news censorship.”

Ross Gan, a spokesman for Huawei, had earlier told
Bloomberg News that any equipment the company provides to
customers is strictly for commercial use only.

Nokia Siemens Networks, which delivered communications
intercept equipment to Iran in 2008, later expressed regret for
the sale and noted “credible reports” that the government had
used communications technology to suppress dissent, Bloomberg
reported Oct. 31. Much of that gear was later swapped out in
favor of Huawei equipment, according to Ben Roome, a spokesman
for NSN.